Senate Fails to Postpone Medicare Physician Fee 10% Cut

In continuing coverage from previous editions of Health and Life Sciences Law Daily, the New York Times (6/27, Pear) reports that physicians now "face a 10 percent cut in Medicare payments next week, following the Senate’s failure on Thursday to take up legislation that would have averted the cuts." By a vote of 58 to 40 on Thursday, "Republican senators blocked" the bill, which "would cancel the 10 percent cut scheduled to occur on Tuesday and would increase Medicare payments to doctors by 1.1 percent in January." Dr. Nancy H. Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association, warned that "the cuts would force many doctors to ‘limit the number of new Medicare patients they treat.’"